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Padre Island — the longest barrier island in the world — is named for Padre José Nicolás Ballí, the priest who settled it in 1804. Here's the problem: nobody knows when he was born. The state historical marker says "sometime in the 1770s." The National Park Service says circa 1768. Another marker says 1772. The statue at the causeway literally reads "177?"
The record that would settle it — his baptism entry — was likely lost when a flood destroyed Reynosa in 1800. So this investigation goes around it: burial books in Matamoros, his 1828 will, ordination files in Mexico. Real documents, real archives, on both sides of the border. The latest entries from the running case log are below — the full file, dated and sourced, is one click away.
Case log · latest entriesThe archive's access process requires a formal letter stating the research and whether findings will be made public — submitted this week, alongside plans to consult the archive in person. If his ordination file survives, that's where the birthdate finally gets answered.
The Archivo Histórico de Matamoros answered my August inquiry. The original 1828 will is not in the archive: it went missing from the city's holdings decades ago — a loss the archive's own historians had already recorded — and other files touching the Padre are gone the same way. The typescript at the Texas General Land Office and the certified copy recorded in Cameron County in 1909 are the will's surviving texts.
One Ballí document does remain in Matamoros: the 1828 survey file of the island itself, recovered and returned to the archive, though its map is still missing. I've filed the signed request the archive requires for a digital copy.
Sources: Archivo Histórico de Matamoros, reply of Sep 9, 2026 · Texas GLO SC 000136:2A · Cameron County deed records, certified copy recorded Nov 5, 1909
Both of Garza's leads turned out to be in the record. The Texas Supreme Court's 1944 opinion in State v. Balli cites a revoked will of the Padre dated November 4, 1811, then still in the Matamoros archives, and quotes him: he claimed the island's pasture as his property, said he had it surveyed and adjudicated, and kept a thousand head of cattle there — seventeen years before the will everyone cites.
The same opinion records that the heirs' original title papers were lost in November 1850 in the wreck of the steamer Anson out of Brazos Santiago. The 1811 will is now part of my request to Matamoros; the wreck is a new thread.
Sources: State v. Balli, 144 Tex. 195, 190 S.W.2d 71 (Tex. 1944) · UTRGV Special Collections, Ballí Family research guide (1996 translation of the 1811 will by J. T. Canales)
Still open: the birthdate itself. The one document that legally had to contain proof of his age — his ordination file — is the target now, in the archdiocesan archive in Monterrey. The full hunt is being filmed, and the day the question mark falls, the correction goes to the Texas Historical Commission.
Every family and every mystery is different, so every case is quoted individually — after a free look at what you're trying to solve. Typical engagements range from a single focused question ("who was my great-grandfather, really?") to a full verified family story spanning both sides of your line.
Traditional genealogists bill $50–100+ an hour and often take months. My workflow gets to verified answers in weeks. You'll know the scope and the price before any work begins — no surprises, no meter running.
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